Orca Gold Begins Drilling at Morondo Discovery in Cote d'Ivoire

Orca Gold Inc. is pleased to announce the commencement of drilling on the Morondo Permit in Côte d'Ivoire.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Morondo, a discovery made by Red Back Mining in 2010, is a permit within Orca's 2,890km² land package in Côte d'Ivoire, 1,826km² of which the Company is in the process of acquiring from Kinross Gold Corporation ("Kinross") pursuant to a share purchase agreement (the "Transaction")
• In anticipation of closing the Transaction, a 2,500-metre drill programme has commenced at Morondo and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2017
• Mineralization at Morondo has a current strike length of 600m and true width up to 150m
• The current programme is reverse circulation (RC) drilling to the depth of 150m
• Drill results are expected in January 2018

DETAILS

Orca executed a share purchase agreement in early 2017 with two subsidiaries of Kinross to acquire the Morondo and Korokaha North exploration licences and five other exploration license applications (see Company News Release on February 1, 2017). The Korokaha North licence and Korokaha South application lie adjacent to the east of Randgold's Tongon Mine. The Bassawa and Satama applications are located on the southern extension of the Houndé Belt. The Zuénoula Ouest and Zuénoula Est applications are located north west of Perseus's Yaoure project.

Following approval by the Minister of Industry and Mines of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire for the portion of the Transaction related to Morondo (see Company News Release on November 6, 2017), the Company has commenced exploration with a 2,500m drill programme on this permit. Gold mineralization at Morondo was discovered by Red Back Mining in 2010 with 4,284m of shallow RC drilling and trenching before the company was acquired in the same year.

Morondo is the most advanced property in Côte d'Ivoire that Orca currently holds or is in the process of acquiring via the Transaction (see Figure 1). Mineralisation at Morondo, the best intercept of which included 66m at 1.53g/t, was intersected over a strike length of 600m by 200m. True width of mineralization is up to 150m hosted by an altered and sheared mafic volcaniclastic rock and is open in all directions. The current drilling (see Figure 2) will aim to test mineralization below the previous RC coverage to a depth of 150m and will be complete before the end of the year with results expected in January 2018.

Rick Clark, CEO and Director of Orca, commented "Orca is now active in two prolific gold environments in Africa, Sudan and Côte d'Ivoire. It is a busy time for the Company with a 25,000m drill programme and Feasibility Study in process at our Block 14 Gold Project in Sudan and an initial drill campaign underway in Côte d'Ivoire. With ministerial approval now in hand for the portion of our transaction with Kinross that covers the Morondo Permit, we are moving forward with closing the deal and are wasting no time getting back on the ground at Morondo to follow up on our initial discovery made in 2010. With positive results, we intend to fast track Morondo towards resource definition in 2018. At the same time, early next year we will commence exploration and evaluation of our broad property portfolio in Côte d'Ivoire. We look forward to keeping the market informed as we move into the New Year."